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2015-06-17 - Future Imperfect - Sticking the Landing
Kara Zor-El groans as she is lying on the ground. "Ow..... again. Really. Owwwwww.." she says into the ground before getting up, sitting on the red dusty rubble of the ground. "Okay, where's Bizarro and Toyman?" she says, looking around for where amongst the buildings of Metropolis they are. Actually, where are the buildings of Metropolis also? Actually, where's Metropolis? Actually...... where was she? Kara gets up to her feet, dusts herself off a bit, looks around at the barren wasteland she's in, with assorted rubble from the battle. She looks to her left. Nothing but normal looking craggy mountains in the distance. She looks to the right. Nothing but a normal looking.... endless desert. She looks... confused. "Hello?" as she looks up at the sky with its big red sun. "Uh....." A piece of rubble nearby offers some protection against a dry, hot wind that blows across the wasteland. It looks like a piece of some ancient building of some sort, a few metres tall and wide, but nothing really recognizeable. There is a broken Plymouth laying around which looks brand new, oddly. It's on its side, where it got flung by a giant robot only minutes ago. There is oddly little noise, save for the howl of some beast far, far away. The red sun looks somehow larger, closer, making the day very hot indeed. Not to mention... it's a red sun. Assuming she still has her powers, depending on how long she was unconcious, she wouldnt have them for much longer with no yellow solar radiation. She looks around. "Where am I?" she says aloud to herself. Another planet? That would explain the red sun overhead. She then hears the animal sounds. "Yeah... I don't think I want to test if I still have invulnerability." she says as she heads over to the Plymouth - it was definitely busted, but maybe there was something worth salvaging. She pulls back her hand as she's searching it when she cuts herself on some exposed jagged glass from the window. "YEah. DEFINITELY not wanting to test invulnerability..." she says as she sees the cut on her hand, continuing to look for any sort of supplies so she can get out of there before whatever made that howling sound gets here. The car was fueled up, apparently. It came from a car lot, so was set up to go for test drives, but didn't have the KEYS inside. Kara would have to learn how to hotwire a car 'on the fly' to get it doing car things. There isn't much inside unfortunately; car jack, first aid kit, a map of the Metropolis area. No food or shelter, but it does have leather seats in the front and cloth in the back. Sweat going down Kara's forehead suggests that finding shelter might be a good choice, though the air conditioning in the car looks tempting. Hidden under the passenger seat Kara finds a gem after some serious searching though: a pocket knife! Kara Zor-El notices that aside from the car being on its side, with busted windows, it seems like it MIGHT still be in working condition. No keys though. Kara pushes the car. "nnngh!" Okay... . apparently cars are really heavy. Fortunately she was still able to push it back onto its wheels, opening the door and getting in. "Shouldnt be much different than the housebot...." she says as she checks under the steering wheel, and pulls off the casing. "Oh okay good.. Soooooo um... this wire goes to the spark plug, and this wire goes to the battery." She thinks about that, taking a piece of broken glass, cutting the wires, then stripping them a bit. "Sooooo normally they go up to the key which connects them when you turn it annnnnd so if I put these two together..." she says to herself as she puts the wires together, shocking herself a bit in the process. "OW!" she says with a jump, hitting her head as well in the process on the steering wheel. She rubs her head again, but hears the engine start up. "Yay me." Of course there's the problem that Kara's never driven a car before. She once drove Thara's hover vehicle on Krypton though. And almost hit a building before Thara grabbed the controls back. And she drove the Bat Boat once.... well...crashed it into the Gotham Docks. That sort of counts, right? Well at least there wasnt much to crash into here. Kara then gets out of the car, openin the hood and fiddles around with some stuff to try to improve stuff in the next 5 minutes or so. There was only so much that can be improved on a Pontiac without access to any superior technology though. She got rid of the speed limitations though, and it probably would drive without overheating as quickly now. Kara gets in the car, closing the door, then says to herself, "One foot on the gas, near the brake annnd...." The car started successfully, Kara has transportation at least. Not the most fuel efficient, but it's better than shoe leather. Unfortunately now she's presented with a new problem, once she's inside and sitting on a seat with as little broken glass as possible. Where does she go? The horizon has a few options; nothing really close. Some mountainous areas, a flat space, some other area that looks like there's nothing there but the movement of the air suggests it's actually a drop of some sort, and what might possibly be trees. Her choices are not the best. But a cough of the engine suggests this thing might have been a lemon to start with. She might want to consider tools before her powers fade, and how this actual metal car might be better used. Kara Zor-El looks around while in the car. Going to the desert will probably get her farther, and less chance of animals, but to the mountains could be shelter and water. The possible forest area would also have water and .... maybe shelter? But much more likely animals "Mountains or forest..." she says to herself as she pushes down on the gas pedal. The choice is made for her, as the car goes two feet before dying. "Okay. That was a waste of time." She then decides to try something else. She takes off a panel of the door, which could be used for protection if she just used the outer part, which would be light and used as a lean to for shade. She takes off the leather seat cover, using it as a makeshift backpack, and puts a few bottle in it - emptying some water from the radiator in it and another bottle with some gasoline. She tears up some of the cloth from the back and puts it in as well. Then takes a tire iron and some rope from the trunk and the car jack as well. She ties up the leather seat cover and puts it over her shoulder. "Okay... that's... something I guess?" she says before walking off in the direction of the forest - the best chance of water would be there. Kara Zor-El looks around while in the car. Going to the desert will probably get her farther, and less chance of animals, but to the mountains could be shelter and water. The possible forest area would also have water and .... maybe shelter? But much more likely animals "Mountains or forest..." she says to herself as she pushes down on the gas pedal. She decides on the forest, and starts driving off in that direction. With any luck she'll get to it without crashing into a tree or something. The forest turns out to be petrified; there is shade to be had but it's difficult to drive through. Though Kara learns fast, she's not going to crash into a tree unless she chooses to do so. Her thoughts of there being animal life is justified though. Scavenger birds live in the treetops, and there is insect life all around. Not so much of the mammals. The sun is starting to go down at this point. Kara Zor-El frowns a bit. "Maybe the mountains would have been a better idea." she says when she notices the trees are petrified and there doesnt seem to be any water source. "I guess I'll try the mountains tomorrow." She pauses. "Maybe I can rig up the radio into a transceiver and figure a way to communicate with whatever other civilizations are here?" she says to herself, as she carefully starts working on removing the radio after stopping the car inside of the petrified forest, for some shade without 'too' much potential danger. Supergirl gets a new friend as the sun goes down. Big ugly bird, probably an ancient offshoot of the vulture, in the tree up above. It doesn't seem to think that she's food. Not yet. But if it got close enough it could become dinner on its own. And with some work, the radio comes out into her hands. Kara Zor-El reaches into the dimensional pocket and takes out her phone. Sure, it wouldnt work on this planet because it uses a power source from the Fortress, but maybe she can rig it to... "Wait... why's the phone working on its own?" She says to herself as she notices. She looks at the bird. "Shoo you! Shoo!" The bird that looks down on Kara and her car seems unimpressed by her words. It does, however, say in some odd croaky voice, "Shoo...Shoo...." as if they've developed the ability to mimic sounds. Odd survival trait. The bird spreads its wings and flies to another tree, calling "Shoo" a few more times. No rain. No clouds, even. It's going to be a dry night. Kara Zor-El pauses. "Creepy..." then tries to work on using the phone with the radio to extend reception and find some sort of signal on the planet. Some sign of civilization. With enough effort and the right tools, Kara could probably turn her celphone into a jet fighter. But with what she's got, she gets it working as a scanner of sorts. And immediately picks up a signal! A few of them actually, though none are actually interactive. The Justice League homing beacon is giving its signal, unchanged after all these years, which might tell Kara: This is still Earth. She also has something that seems vaguely Korean by the tone somehow, a repeating message asking if anyone is out there. It seems to be from a LONG ways away though. And the Fortress of Solitude's power scan. With a bit more work she also gets something that seems like an electrical fluctuation. In...the complete opposite direction of the Justice League beacon. So. North to the JLU or south to the electrical disturbance? Kara Zor-El looks at the phone oddly. Justice League beacon? The phone still picking up a powersource at the Fortress? "Rao..." she says to herself. "I'm stll on Earth." Whatever happened must have sent her into the distant, distant future! Then she picks up the electrical disturbance. After some quick math in her head - being smart not being a superpower - she determines which signal is originating from a closer location.... ... The Justice League signal. With triangulation, Kara notes that the JL signal seems to be...about where it should be if she were still in downtown Metropolis. Or a bit to the east. Since she had been driving east...it's odd, but she seems to be exactly in the same location she was before the time shift. There's just no CITY here. Kara Zor-El decides to set up camp here for now, and plans to make her way to the signal when there's some light again. She was going to need to conserve whatever power she still had, after all. Kara lies down in the back seat of the car and tries to get comfortable. Difficult. "SHOO! SHOO!" goes the sound of the ugly bird. At least until the car manual from the glove compartment is thrown at it.